A democracy works when people actually respect each other's opinions and choices in politics. During an election in an ideal world, the majority vote overrule the minority and everyone gets along until the people get another sort of election to choose who they want to represent their views. Or, generally, that's how it should work. But as is always the case, what should be and what is are very rarely the same.

Often times, a democratic election turns into a popularity contest, not unlike American Idol in its hey-day, but rather than an actual vote regarding views and competence. And people will hurl venom at each other online over their preferred contestants. And that is exactly what is happening here in the Philippines. This is probably a side effect of the whole feudal system we've had since the 1600s, and is perpetuated in the modern semi-feudal democratic state, where your representatives aren't regular people but from the same ruling families from decades ago!

Over the course of the four years since I finished university, I have either mentioned it myself or someone else has mentioned that I miss university, or college, or high school. Perhaps, after the grand goal of graduating and escaping that rut of education, we find out that real life is not as glamorous as the movies and television shows make it seem.

So, I was checking my emails this morning and I found this little story in my inbox. It was the old children's story, the Little Red Hen. Or at least, a slightly updated version of it. I had a few chuckles from reading it, and comparing real life to its principles.

I figured I'd post it here for any random readers to come across. And whoever wrote this, you ma'am/sir, are brilliant.

Come New Year's Day, you and I probably know at least one person who has committed to do something this coming year. Whether it is to cut down on one particular thing, or to do some other thing, or to spend more here and less over there. We call these New Year's resolutions, simply because we resolved to do them for this year. When you spend time with people, the first thing that you learn from them is that they do not always know what they want. I found that people are often susceptible to their own moods, and are prone to changing them halfway through whatever it is that they decided to throw themselves into.

Perhaps it is the side effect of humanity's nature; our natural desire to rebel against all forms of authority, even if it were ourselves that placed these restrictions upon ourselves in the form of such a resolution. Why do we bother trying, we should stop and ask ourselves this very question often. More often than not, we become so accustomed to going about our daily lives without bothering to try and understand the meaning behind most of what we do. We are merely content to go about it, or give up after trying a few times.

I got around to doing this a bit late as I went to the Manila International Bookfair, so this one will be about that. At any rate, the bookfair was far larger than I the last one I had gone to, which admittedly has been beyond my recall as to when. Keen on the idea of exploring the vast shelves of books and other printed material, I hoped to find books that were elusive and very difficult to track down without the help of the internet.

You'd actually be surprised at how much intelligence and common sense grow further and further apart in the supposedly most-educated era of human history. People educate themselves, and knowledge progresses at such an astounding rate. Most people you meet in the street today have had far more schooling than many great men in history, and yet, despite the rising levels of intellect, you also find a disturbing and glaring lack of common sense.

Let's suppose a book was written by some middle-class continental European citizen around two hundred years ago. This book contained certain ideas that were so drastic that some considered it scandalous enough to radically change society in one way or entirely. A few years pass, and the book has inspired a whole movement of people who read to subscribing to the ideas presented in the book and have managed to gain some considerable political power.

I've been doing a bit of thinking. And, I came to the conclusion that there are certain things that made Taiwan great. While, a lot of things probably contributed to their rapid rise and development and their global reputation for being a reliable country when it comes to technology, I don't think it's just a simple set of characteristics. It's the cumulative mindsets of the Taiwanese people, I suppose.

It has been a while since I last looked at myself in the mirror properly. While I can safely say I lost a bit of weight, I seem to have grown eye bags to make up for it. And I find that I have not been taking good care of myself. I tend to sleep at three in the morning, even if I’ve been in bed since ten or eleven. Ultimately, I lack rest. The reasons behind my lack of proper rest could be any number of things, though internal troubles tend to be the worst cause of it. I would rather face a thousand real dangers unafraid than to facing matters of the heart and spirit.

For those unfamiliar, aphorisms are original thoughts written or spoken that express a truth or a grain of wisdom in a very brief, often repeatable, form. These are similar to proverbs, or adages, but are quite recent. I found a small collection of my aphorisms, and decided to put some here for your enjoyment. These may or may not be applicable or make sense at all.

The denial of reality is dangerous. And, yet, this is what this strangely bizarre world is trying to do. The denial of reality, coupled with the declaration of 'what I feel is legitimate', detracts from those who recognise reality and say to themselves 'what I feel is legitimate.' It would be safe to assume that the world is indeed far stranger than fiction. What ought to be simple becomes utterly complicated, and what ought to be complicated is simplified to the point of being utterly ridiculous. It comes as no surprise that people lose their minds. The world is sick. It has been inoculated with the mindset of ‘this is what I want, and I want it now’, our predecessors have managed to raise up a generation of adult children who never learned to grow up. Many have been given to have all that their hearts could possibly wish, and yet not to have what their heart does wish. They have everything except contentment. And they believe the lie that they know what they are doing, when they have no idea whatsoever. And this endless search for pleasure destroys them.

ABOUT THE STREET CORNER

The Street Corner is a personal website dedicated to the understanding of society's social and spiritual ills, their effects on the individual and society in general, random ideas and a dumping ground of the author's fiction.

FOLLOW Me

The Street Corner, 2013-2019. All rights reserved, and all wrongs reversed.Powered by electricity and the machine spirits.